[The significance of wear and material fatigue in loosening of hip prostheses].

Particles created by wear and disintegration of implant materials give rise to foreign body reactions in the tissue surrounding joint endoprostheses. Histiocytes and foreign body giant cells phagocytize the particles released and form granulomas, which lead in turn to remodelling and resorption of the bone at the interface between implant and bone. As a consequence of this, osteolysis develops, which may lead to loosening and complete failure of fixation of the implant. Radiographically, the areas of osteolysis appear as localized, round, oval or oblong scalloping defects or as radiolucent lines in the endosteal sections of the bone immediately adjacent to the implants. This paper reports on 21 hip joint endoprostheses in which polyethylene and bone cement particles induced large areas of osteolysis at the bone/cement interface. In 8 cases the polyethylene particles originated from the convex joint surfaces of ball heads in "soft-top" endoprostheses (with or without simultaneous replacement of the acetabulum by a metal cup), and in 5 cases they originated from the anchoring surfaces of non-cemented cone-shaped screw-in sockets (Endler type); osteolysis and loosening of these endoprostheses appeared on average 48.2 and 76.6 months after implantation, respectively. The bone cement fragments came from the bone cement mantle of the femur, which had become fractured, disrupted and crushed, in 8 cases of total hip replacement with cemented prostheses; osteolysis appeared on average 87 months after primary implantation in these cases. Tissue samples taken at revision surgery from the joint capsule, the bone/cement interface and the osteolytic areas were processed into histological sections for microscopy and examined in the usual way. The type and amount of phagocytized material were subjected to semiquantitative analysis. We were able to show that osteolysis at the bone/cement interface can be induced by foreign body reactions to abraded polyethylene particles alone as well as by reactions to fragmented bone cement. The morphology of the tissue reaction to particles of the different materials is quite similar. The effect of the foreign body granulomas depends less on the type of the polymer than on the amount of abrasion and fragmentation products released into the surrounding tissue. This again proves that the life-time of joint endoprostheses depends essentially on factors influencing the wear rate. Polymer materials, with low wear resistance, are unsuitable for convex joint surfaces and for direct fixation to bone.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)